By Laura Ingalls Wilder - Amazon S3...Laura Ingalls Wilder is one of the masters of literary...

The Long WinterBy Laura Ingalls Wilder

Dictation passages

Week OneThe mowing machine’s whirring sounded cheerfully from the old buffalo wallow

south of the claim shanty, where bluestem grass stood thick and tall and Pa was cutting it for hay.

(Chapter 1)

Week One The Long Winter

- 3 - © 2012 - Julie (Bogart) Sweeney - Brave Writer

Week One:Opening:

The mowing machine’s whirring sounded cheerfully from the old buffalo wallow south of the claim shanty, where bluestem grass stood thick and tall and Pa was cutting it for hay.

(Chapter 1)

Why this passage:

Laura Ingalls Wilder is one of the masters of literary description. This opening uses a slew of literary devices to evoke a mood.

What to note:

This passage makes use of three literary elements: assonance (the repetition of vowel sounds through a sentence), alliteration (the repetition of initial consonant sounds) and consonance (the repetition of any consonant sound throughout the sentence).

• Assonance: mowing, buffalo, wallow

• Alliteration: mowing machine’s, whirring… wallow…

• Consonance: cheerfully… old buffalo wallow; south…bluestem grass stood; claim… bluestem… tall

Visually, there are a bevvy of “double letters” too: whirring, cheerfully, buffalo, wallow, grass, stood, tall, cutting.

This is a single sentence passage, too, with one clause.



How to teach the passage:

To teach the three literary elements found in this passage, plus to highlight the double letters, you might print a copy of the passage from the passage page for each child. Arm each one with a highlighter.

Explain the definitions of assonance, alliteration, and consonance. Then, starting with assonance, read the passage slowly and suggest the children listen for assonance first. Help them to identify and highlight each word that shares a sound. You might help them identify the sound ahead of time and then your kids can listen for it to identify which words house the sound.

Next, listen for alliteration. Do one set at a time.

Consonance has the most choices and is harder to detect. You might start by suggesting a sound (the ‘s’ sound) and then reading all the words with ‘s’s. Then highlight them.

Finally, ask your kids to underline all the double letters so that they notice them. When your children go to copywork/dictation, they will have explored this passage in a more deliberate way which should make the task of reproducing it, a bit easier.

Grammar notes: Pesky possessives

In most cases, the possessive ending is as easy as pie in English. Simply add “apostrophe s (‘s)” to the noun in question.

machine’s

Sometimes the noun is not as cooperative as the noun “machine,” though. What should be done if the noun ends in ‘s’? What if Jess has a bike? Do we still simply add ‘s to the noun ending in ‘s’? Why, yes! We do!

Jess’s bike

The confusion comes from the fact that plural nouns end in ‘s’ already. Do you add ‘s to a plural noun ending in ‘s’ the same way you add it to a singular noun that naturally ends in ‘s’? And this is where the change comes: No!

Pelicans’ nests

You simply add the apostrophe by itself. It’s natural that this would feel confusing, but one way to remember it is to keep a notecard of quirky rules like this handy for



self-editing. Pull it out when you go to read your own writing and ask yourself in each instance of possessive use what kind of noun you are using – singular or plural, naturally ending ‘s’ or ‘s because it is plural. Then you can correct your own work before anyone sees it.

Let’s keep going.

If the plural doesn’t use an ending ‘s’, then you simply add ‘s to it:

Children’s theater

Lastly, let’s look at the most pesky of all possessives: the infamous “its.”

Unlike all the other singular nouns, the pronoun “it” doesn’t take an apostrophe ‘s’ when it becomes possessive. Good news: There’s a real reason for this anomaly. When “it” takes an apostrophe s, it’s stands for “it + is” as in “it’s true!”; or “it + has” as in “it’s been three weeks since Christmas.”

To be able to remember when to use which one, ask yourself if the “its” in question can be replaced by “it is” or “it has.” If it can’t, then you know you’re dealing with a possessive, which means no apostrophe! Ever!

How do possessives enhance the power in your writing? Possessives are a kind of shorthand. They let the reader focus on the story at hand, rather than getting bogged down in lots of prepositional phrases. Did you know, for instance, that in French possessive is conveyed by saying the equivalent of:

• the pen of Julie

• the aunt of Helene

• the Tower of Eiffel

English is fabulous in its ability to “get to the point” without detours.

If you find yourself resorting to lots of prepositions, ask yourself if you’ve left out possessives. Here’s what I mean:

The handle of the umbrella hung from the wrist of her arm as she stepped onto the sidewalk of the parking lot, avoiding the puddle of mud that would have splashed the boots she wore.

Blech! Right? Possessives (and small edits) to the rescue!



The umbrella’s handle hung from her wrist as she stepped onto the parking lot’s sidewalk, avoiding the mud puddle that would have splashed her boots.

Let’s look at the changes. First, it’s much easier to simply use the possessive for “umbrella’s handle” than introducing that wordy clause: “handle of the umbrella.” Secondly, a wrist is always attached to an arm so we can simply eliminate the “of her arm” for greater clarity and attach the possessive “her” to wrist. Next, the “parking lot’s sidewalk” is less cumbersome. A “puddle of mud” is usually called “a mud puddle” where “mud” is an adjective. And finally, “her boots” indicates ownership without the additional explanation of who wore them.

As you write, think about ways to “edit” your original raw writing that takes advantage of possessives as a “power tool” in writing. You can cut through the wordiness with a well-placed apostrophe ‘s’ or a possessive pronoun like “her” or “his.”

Week TwoAfter he had got his breath and melted the frost and snow from his mustaches, he

said, “Well, the hard winter’s begun.”

“Why, Charles,” Ma said. “It isn’t like you to worry about winter weather.”

“I’m not worrying,” Pa replied. “But it’s going to be a hard winter.”

(Chapter 10)

Week Two The Long Winter


Week Two:Dialog:

After he had got his breath and melted the frost and snow from his mustaches, he said, “Well, the hard winter’s begun.”

“Why, Charles,” Ma said. “It isn’t like you to worry about winter weather.”

“I’m not worrying,” Pa replied. “But it’s going to be a hard winter.”

(Chapter 10)

Why this passage:

The premise of this novel is that the Ingalls family has to live through a long winter. Chapter 10 introduces the reader to the coming winter through the dialog here between Ma and Pa.

What to note:

The dialog is a “foreshadowing” of the coming long, hard winter. Foreshadowing is a literary element (device) that means that the reader is given a hint about the plot before the characters are aware of what they will face. In this dialog, we hear that this winter could provoke worry. If you read further, you can see that Ma tries to mitigate (prevent) worry by suggesting that their proximity to town will save them.

“Well, if it is,” said Ma, “here we are in town where we can get what we need from the stores even in a storm.”

With that conversation hanging in the air, the reader (who already knows the title of the novel) is introduced to a hint of “irony” as well. For in reading the story, while being close to town does turn out to be helpful, it in no way guarantees their survival.

In addition to these literary devices, note the dialog punctuation. Each time the speaker changes, there is an indentation.

Another interesting note: Pa has “mustaches” not “a mustache.”



How to teach the passage:To teach the dialog punctuation, note that the sentence gets a period after the attributive tags are placed. The next line of dialog by the speaker starts with a capital letter.

Use double quotes for dialog.

You might want to select words for pre-teaching for spelling too:

• “breath” not “breathe” (“breath” is the noun, “breathe” is the verb)

• “mustaches” not “mustashes” (comes from French which is why we use “ch” for the /sh/ sound in this word)

• “weather” not “whether” (“weather” is a noun which refers to the condition of the climate; “whether” is a conjunction).

Grammar Notes: Making meaning out of spelling

Not all spelling errors are created equal. Some are more grammatical than others.

Spelling is a term that we use to suggest that there is a right way and wrong way to order the letters of a word. But what if you “spell” a word correctly, it’s just that the context demands a different spelling of that word? Some “spelling” errors actually turn out to be grammatical gaffes rather than straight up “I don’t know how many “c”s are in accommodate!”

In this week’s copywork passage, we find ourselves looking at two words in particular that are frequently “misspelled” or at least, are mistakenly spelled the way they would appear in a different context.

The word “breath” (a noun that means the air you inhale and exhale) is not the same word as “breathe” (the verb that expresses the idea of taking breaths). Because they are so similarly spelled, it’s easy to make the mistake of using the “wrong” one when you are writing. Sometimes people call this a spelling error. The truth is, however, that this is a grammatical error. Either spelling is accurate unto itself. What determines which one you use is the context of the sentence.

This ought to be good news to parents. Your child may be a champion speller (remembers how to order the letters correctly to form a legitimately recognizable



word). However, if the child inserts the wrong word into a sentence, the error is that the word isn’t the right word. It’s another sound-alike word (homonym) or a similarly spelled word but with a different meaning, that goes there. The issue is less about spelling and more about selecting the right word for the situation.

So what are the two tricky terms this week?

• Breath

• Weather

Let’s look at how to ensure the spelling of “breath” instead of “breathe.” Say the two words outloud. Notice that the second one makes an “eeeee” sound in the middle. One way we get that sound is to put an “e” at the end (extra “e” force!).

As your child writes “breath,” help your child notice that there is no “eeeee” sound. Therefore, remind your child to leave the ending “e” off.

For “weather,” you are facing another challenge. In most cases, young kids learn the spelling for “weather” (climate) first. It’s a noun and they see it frequently. What happens, though, is that as they grow in their vocabulary and sophistication in writing, they want to use the conjunction “whether” and borrow the climate term into that role.

You might like explaining that this is what is happening when they “misspell” whether. One way to help them remember which is which is to start with the word “weather.”

“Weather” starts the way the word “wear” starts. When you have to deal with weather, you have to determine what to wear. That can be a way to remind a writer that “weather” starts “wea…” and not “whe…”

You might enjoy playing with this rhyme (memorizing it, reciting it, and then writing it.):

Whether the weather be fine, Or whether the weather be not, Whether the weather be cold,

Or whether the weather be hot, We’ll weather the weather

Whatever the weather, Whether we like it or not!

Anotheridea: Write “weather” and “whether” on a white board—separate them enough that it’s clear they are two distinct words. Then as you and your kids recite the poem, have the kids use a pointer to indicate which one is being said.

Week ThreeThe corner of his eye caught a gleam of light. He looked toward it and saw nothing

in the storm-dark. Then he saw it again—a glow that shone bright, then abruptly went out. He knew what it was; light was shining out from a door opened and shut. Near where it had been, he thought he saw now the faint glow of a frost-covered window, and he yelled to Cap.

(Chapter 29)

Week Three The Long Winter


Week Three:The Last Mile:

The corner of his eye caught a gleam of light. He looked toward it and saw nothing in the storm-dark. Then he saw it again—a glow that shone bright, then abruptly went out. He knew what it was; light was shining out from a door opened and shut. Near where it had been, he thought he saw now the faint glow of a frost-covered window, and he yelled to Cap.

(Chapter 29)

Why this passage:

The entire plot turns on whether or not Almanzo and Cap make it back from their trip to get wheat. This scene is especially grave and threatening. A small town, literally obscured by a blizzard, is invisible from the naked eye. Buildings, a thoroughfare—these were not visible in the midst of the storm. Can you imagine being in a place where an entire town could be hidden by snowfall? Can you imagine a town so isolated that there are no other towns running up to it? That you could possibly miss your window of return and never find your home again?

Almanzo only “sees” the town because someone in it flashes light by opening and closing a door at the precise minute he and Cap scan the horizon for the town. These blinks of light save not only their lives, but of everyone in the town as well—the provision of the wheat is the difference between starvation and making it a few more weeks to spring.

How incredible is this story?

What to note:

There are two instances of hyphenated words:

• Storm-dark

• Frost-covered



Sometimes a writer will choose to hyphenate two words when together they form a single adjective (describing word).

The em dash is used to connect what Almanzo saw, with its description. The long dash is a nice choice because it creates a kind of suspense all by itself. This is the moment of salvation—a light! It shines in the “storm-dark” and leads the boys home.

Light is associated with understanding, rescue, home, safety, realization, and clarity. In this story, the light from the doorway is the symbol that lets the reader know “all will be well” for Almanzo, Cap, and the entire town.

How to teach the passage:

This is a long passage. For young writers, divide it into several days of writing or reduce it to the first long sentence. Pay attention to the dash lengths. For a hyphen, the dash should be the width of one single lowercase letter. For the em dash, it should be the width of a lowercase “m,” roughly. The main thing to suggest is that the em dash should be twice as long as the hyphen. It’s easier to do with a keyboard than in handwriting so practice a few times before hand copying the text.

Grammar notes: Hyped-up hyphens!

One way to create powerful descriptions is to surprise readers with new combinations of words. Look at this week’s describing words:

• Storm-dark

• Frost-covered

Ms. Ingalls Wilder chose “storm-dark” partly because a blizzard was on its way. She wanted to give two images at once—the coming storm and the darkness of the clouds. She chose “frost-covered” to describe Pa Ingalls’s icy whiskers.

Think about a weather event in your own world. What combination of words might you use to create a hyphenated description? Select from the following set of terms:

• Rain • Bend• Sunny • Cold• Rainbow • Drenched• Icy • Yellow



Combine in any combination to create a new hyphenated description. For instance you might use the following pair: Snow and Powdery

The snow-powdery trails made a nice path for skiing.

Try it for yourself!

Week Four “Then what is the use of repining,

For where there’s a will, there’s a way,

And tomorrow the sun may be shining,

Although it is cloudy today.”

(Chapter 33)


Week Four:Closing:

“Then what is the use of repining,

For where there’s a will, there’s a way,

And tomorrow the sun may be shining,

Although it is cloudy today.”

(Chapter 33)

Why this passage:

The so-called “Little House” series has preserved a collection of songs from over a century ago. This one makes use of the famous expression: “For where there’s a will, there’s a way.”

What to note:

The word “repining” is not in common usage today. Your kids may wonder what it means: “To be discontented or low in spirits; complain or fret.”

This passage is a set of lines from a beloved tune played by Pa. This is the chorus (the repeated refrain) from the longer song of the novel. The verses each delineate what it takes to live a life of happiness, and the chorus reminds the singers of the essential truths.

A verse in a song is similar to a stanza in poetry. These two words (verse, stanza) are often used interchangeably, though their original meanings are distinct.

A verse is a single line of words arranged “metrically” (for rhythm, like in a poem).

A stanza is a group of those metrically arranged lines (verses), usually about four lines or more in length.

Week Four The Long Winter


In a song, the word “verse” has come to be associated with the stanzas that get sung that are distinct from the chorus, hence the confusion. So this week’s copywork is a stanza that serves as a chorus in the song.

Notetherhymescheme: ABAB (we give a letter to an ending sound of the line and then use the same letter when we find the same sound at the end of another line). You might try rearranging the lines to see if they still work—that can show your kids how we expect a rhyme when we are singing or reading poetry.

How to teach this passage:

When writing poetry, indenting from the margin is the usual practice. You can suggest that your kids lay a finger next to the margin line and then start to write on the other side of it.

Discuss the famous phrase taken from this song:

“Forwherethere’sawill,there’saway.”

Ask your kids what they think it means. How do they express “will” in their lives today? When they are faced with a hardship, how do they use their wills to create “a way”?

One of the wonderful contributions of the Little House books is the way they urge people to be decent, hard-working, conscientious contributors to their families and communities. The Long Winter in particular depended upon the community striving together to survive. They relied on a “collective” will—that is, they relied on each other, not just themselves, and together, survived.

Can you think of any current examples of how communities pull together when they face hardships? (Fires, earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes—natural disasters are one of the more common conditions that cause communities to rely on each other.)

Here are some spelling words for you:

• repining • where• there • tomorrow• shining • although• cloudy

Grammar Notes: No new notes for this week

Week Four The Long Winter


Literary ElementAmplification:

Amplification is the literary device that makes mountains out of molehills. Your kids get to embellish, expand, add—ergo, amplify—the original content. Release your kids to go wild with details!

Amplification is a fancy way of saying what we discuss in The Writer’s Jungle in the revision section. One way to help your young writers enhance their raw writing (freewrite, first draft) is to “ask for more.” You want to develop the ideas by adding details and language to them.

One example would be like this:

With amplification:

Let’s look at an example from The Long Winter. Note how Ms. Ingalls Wilder expands from the idea that Laura is feeling deeply cold:

This description is a thorough investigation of the idea that Laura is cold. As kids look at their own writing, it helps to ask them if they can “amplify” the content—adding detail to the as-yet-undeveloped ideas.

Here’s another example of amplification:

Sharon and Jessie celebrated their grandparents’ 50th anniversary.

Sharon and Jessie celebrated their grandparents’ 50th anniversary with cake, dancing, champagne, and sending 50 helium balloons into the sky.

Her mittened hand was so numb that it hardly felt Carrie’s hand. She was shaking all over and deep inside her there was a shaking that she could not stop. Only in the very middle there was a solid knot that ached, and her shaking pulled this knot tighter so that the ache grew worse.

(Chapter 9)


Notice how the next sentences that follow expand this idea of what and how Pa rode to the stable.

In most cases, amplification may be applied to a single sentence (adding necessary detail to enhance its effectiveness in communication). For our purposes here, see amplification as the tool that helps to draw more language, detail, and insight from your young writers.

Writing Tip

Consider ways to apply amplification to your child’s writing this week. Find a freewrite from your child’s collection of freewrites. Together, identify a sentence begging to be expanded from one of them. You’ll recognize the sentence by what we call “label words.”

If your child writes that something is amazing, or something is awesome, or someone is lazy, or someone else is smart, you are being invited to ask your child for “more.” You can say, “Tell me more about lazy. How does that look? What is that person like? What would show me that the person is lazy.” These sorts of questions encourage your child to “amplify” their content.

Once you have asked for more content, you may want to jot it down for your child. Or, conversely, you can set the timer for a couple of minutes and ask your child to write all the ways that the person demonstrates being lazy. This kind of work can be done for each example of content that needs amplification. Just remember to not overdo it in one sitting. Only amplify a couple of ideas per writing session.

Go ahead and ask for “amplification.” It’s a great term! Your kids may be impressed with themselves to know that they know the term and can use the device effectively.

Pa came riding up to the stable.

Pa came riding up to the stable. He was standing on a queer kind of sled. It was a low platform made of new boards and it was as long as a wagon and twice as wide. It had no tongue, but a long loop of chain was fastened to the wide-apart runners and the whiffletrees were fastened to the chain.

(Chapter 16)

Literary Element and Wrting Project The Long Winter

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